Richard Fleming, UK Head of Restructuring at KPMG, and joint administrator, said: “Unfortunately, we have made a further 35 redundancies at head office in Welwyn Garden City. This follows the initial 81 redundancies announced on appointment of administrators. The redundancies reflect the reduced need for head office staff, following the store closure programme announced last week. The redundancies were made across the head office teams.”
First Quench Retailing operates around 1,200 Threshers, The Local, Wine Rack, Bottoms Up, Victoria Wine and Haddows branded stores across Scotland, England and Wales and employs approximately 6,300 people. Richard Fleming, Mick McLoughlin and Ian Corfield of KPMG were appointed joint administrators to First Quench on Thursday 29th October 2009. 81 staff at head office were made redundant on Friday 30th October 2009. A further 1,738 redundancies are being made as part of the closure of 373 stores, announced on Thursday 5th November 2009. There were originally 208 employees at head office, which has now reduced to 92 as part of the administration.
